Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

I'm planning on installing the 2 cabin doors and was looking over how I'm going to attach the refrigerator hinges. Because of the moldings I have on the doors the hinge ends are very close to that molding. I don't want there to be any interference or rubbing surprises (hinge contacting molding) when I get the door hung.

My question.... is it typical (or okay) to shim the hinges. I'm thinking like an 1/8 inch shim plate under both hinge half that goes on door and a shim plate on the cabin body half.

Sound okay?

thanks

John

Hi John,

I used 1/8" thick nylon to shim my refrigerator-style hinges. I cut the nylon to fit the footprint of the teardrop side of the hinge. This moved the plane of the door out 1/8" from the plane of the teardrop sidewall to allow room for weather seals.





Take care,
Tom

Thanks a lot Tom. I just went ahead and shimmed the cabin side like you did. If fact, your shims look exactly like my shims. And so do your hinges, probably the same from McMaster. I used black ABS I had for the shims. I think the door actually warped a bit as I'm gettin some unevenness ....like all the surfaces of the door moldings are not making contact with all the surfaces on the cabin moldings. I'm going to have to try some different weather gaskets/stripping combinations to make sure all is sealed and maybe have some secondary seals.

thanks again for sharing your solution with the hinges.

John

I did the same. I am pretty sure I got the idea from Tom’s build, too!



I stacked two shims under each hinge because that worked best with the foam thickness I could find for sealing the doors.

I shim hinges all the time. You can get plastic shim stock at the lumber yard, usually comes from 1/32nd to 1/4.

The other day, I went to remove my doors to add shims so I could fit the new seals.
I couldn't get the hinges off the body of the trailer! I was a bit bemused, then I remembered I'd put the doors on over fairly fresh poly, and dipped the screws before winding them in to boot. I decided not to use brute force, I could just see the first veneer peeling before the hinge came away,
The doors came off the hinges OK. So I scribed around the hinges, and with my heart in my mouth used my small router to rebate the hinge into the door. The nett effect is the same, the door is now slightly proud of the TD wall to allow for installation of the seal, but man it was nerve wracking.